NEW YORK — Los Angeles Dodgers catcher A. J. Ellis hopped out of his stance and spun around toward the home plate umpire, Chris Guccione, desperately pleading his case. David Wright had checked his swing on a pitch Guccione had
NEW YORK — Los Angeles Dodgers catcher A. J. Ellis hopped out of his stance and spun around toward the home plate umpire, Chris Guccione, desperately pleading his case. David Wright had checked his swing on a pitch Guccione had called a ball. But Ellis indicated that the ball had nicked Wright’s bat, ever so slightly, as it whizzed by and into his glove.
That would have meant that Wright was out on strike three and that the New York Mets’ eighth-inning rally would end. But Guccione, the same umpire who had ruled that Chase Utley’s Game 2 slide was legal, did not agree. The at-bat continued, and Wright drew a walk, giving the Mets two runners on, with two outs.
The way Clayton Kershaw had been pitching, this was the Mets’ best break of the night. And still, Kenley Jansen got Daniel Murphy to fly out.
Pitching on three days’ rest on Tuesday, Kershaw turned in a performance that saved the Dodgers’ season and ripped momentum in this National League division series from the Mets. He threw seven innings and compiled eight strikeouts, allowing only one run, to lead the Dodgers to a 3-1 win.
The series now comes down to a winner-take-all Game 5 on Thursday in Los Angeles, against the Dodgers’ second ace, Zack Greinke. The Mets’ best hope may be Jacob deGrom, their lone All-Star, who proved in Game 1 that he is capable of pitching as well as Kershaw did Tuesday.
Even for a pitcher of Kershaw’s caliber, one with three Cy Young Awards and a Most Valuable Player Award to his name, there was some curiosity as to how he would pitch on short rest. And when Kershaw started on three days’ rest in a division series against the St. Louis Cardinals last year, he allowed a three-run homer that essentially ended the Dodgers’ season.
On Tuesday, the Citi Field crowd tried to intimidate him, chanting: “Ker-shaw! Ker-shaw!”
But Kershaw looked undeterred. After walking Wright on six pitches in the first inning, he retired nine batters in order. Lucas Duda looked baffled as he swung through one fastball, and Kershaw froze Wilmer Flores with another one.
Earlier in the series, Greinke had been asked what he had learned from playing with Kershaw. Greinke revealed that once Kershaw figured out which pitch sequence worked against a batter, he could return to that sequence throughout the game. Instead of trying to fool hitters or strategize against them, Kershaw focuses more on making his pitches as sharp as possible.
“If your pitches are that good,” Greinke said, “they can’t do anything with them.”
When the Mets beat Kershaw in Game 1, their strategy had been to grind out at-bats, drive up Kershaw’s pitch count and chase him as early as possible. That required the Mets to make contact with Kershaw’s pitches, though, and this time that seemed like an impossible task.
Just as in Game 1, Daniel Murphy gave the Mets their first run, with a solo homer in the fourth inning. But Kershaw responded by striking out six consecutive batters from the fourth inning to the sixth: two on sliders and four on his signature looping curveball. On two occasions, after particularly nasty strikeouts to end innings, Ellis, the Dodgers’ catcher, started for the dugout before the Mets’ batter had moved.
